ROOFULL UL41-Y External CD/DVD Drive

Insides came out

Only opened and looked at pictures on one disk. The second disk the insides came out instead of disk. Had to tear apart disk player to get disk out Was a very bad purchase

Not working device

Terrible product!!!!! Arrived without USB-C adapter, device does not work at all. I have to plug it in and unplug 20 times before it starts playing, and ejection is a disaster.

Idalmi

September 19, 2026

Exelente

“Buen producto, fácil de usar, sobretodo para mi laptop que no tiene este servicio y a veces necesito revisar un CD o DVD.”

Decent disc player

Works fine, but the disc tray does feel somewhat flimsy. The bottom of the unit also bends inwards a little, so it doesn’t look like the best quality plastic overall.

Biggest annoyance is the eject button is on the edge of the disc tray, so you physically move the disc tray when you press the button. And sometimes you go to push the disc tray in and you instead press the ejection…so yeah, not great. Works decently enough though.

Theapplianceman

November 3, 2025

This ROOFULL External CD DVD Drive for Laptop work very good

I got this ROOFULL External CD DVD Drive for Laptop because my new laptop didn't come with a CD DVD Drive, and I like to back up important files and pictures on CDs and DVDs. All I have to do is connect this external CD and DVD drive to my laptop when I need to back up anything. This ROOFULL External CD DVD Drive works very well

Compact and works great but very cheap build

This ROOFULL External CD DVD Drive is made of cheap, very lightweight plastic, giving it a low-quality look and feel, but so far, its performance is outstanding. It certainly can't get any easier to use: simply plug it into your device using either of the handy USB connectors and pop in your desired disc. The only problem I had was choosing the right file on my computer, but I think that had to do with my settings for Windows Media Player because my DVD played instantly on my VLC Player. One of the nice things about this drive is that it doesn't take up much space. It can be placed almost anywhere on your desk; however, you might want to avoid placing anything heavy on top of it or dropping it. As far as performance goes, it's thumbs up for me, but as far as build quality and price are concerned, I'm leaning towards thumbs down. I think it's a bit pricey for cheap plastic, and as such, I have my doubts about how long this little guy will continue functioning as well as it does.

0:21

Nancy C.

October 12, 2025

It's just works, portable, looks nice and good value CD/DVD-RW drive.

This works! I used to burn CD/DVD-RWs all the time back in the day...and this brought back memories. Works with any software that will let you burn an inserted disc that's writeable, also readable for old discs too. I'm using a Macbook, no issues --- just plug and play, very easy to use and understand! The texture looks really nice and feels like a durable enough material, good value.

Measuring about 5.5"x5.x5" square and 5/8" thick, this is a light-weight but simple designed textured CD/DVD-RW writer-drive. Love the cord management system at the bottom of the drive, comes with USB-C and USB-A connection. Has a front green LED light that shows when it's reading the disc.

Overall, works --- recommend.

0:22

Works great!

This external drive is fantastic for our needs and I have no cons to report so far. I wanted a way to play dvds and cds that was simple, uncomplicated, dependable, and inexpensive. This fits the bill perfectly. See the photos and short video clip to see it up close and in action with an old dvd. It absolutely works as described and we have had no trouble with it... just plug it in and you're good to go. The only note I have for you there... is that if you have Windows 11, you will need to download software to play dvds on your computer. It doesn't happen automatically (until afterwards). But this has nothing to do with this device, it has to do with Windows 11. I was able to download a free VLC program and had the dvd playing in no time. Now it works right away when we pop something in. Would definitely recommend to have handy for these older media types.

0:07

USB 3.0 External CD DVD Drive. Comes with built in USB-C/USB-A Cable and is also a CD DVD Burner.

This review is for and external USB 3.0 CD DVD Drive. The drive has a builtin cable that supports both USB-C and USB-A. It's powered by the computer's usb port so no power adapters are needed. It's also a CD DVD writer and supports 8x DVD writing speeds and 24X CD writing speeds. It's a must for todays computers and laptops that commonly don't come with an internal CD DVD Player/Writer. It's very lightweight and has cutouts on the bottom for the builtin cable to be stowed away.

1:27

Greysmoke

July 30, 2025

A functional drive that needs much better instructions. It's getting the job done.

I'm mixed on this.

1) It does work correctly, although getting it to work isn't as smooth or easy as it should be.

2) It's slow to operate (I use it for ripping audio CDs) but gets the job done eventually. (It can be left to run in the background.)

3) The operating instructions were actually necessary -- and they're a joke. Very small, faint print that's super hard to read. More on this below.

When I first got this drive, I ignored the instructions (as always), removed it from its packaging, and plugged it into a USB port on my PC. The light came on, indicating the unit was receiving power, and an icon appeared in Windows File Explorer under MyPC. When I loaded a CD, however, nothing happened. The unit wouldn't work.

Before stuffing it back in its packaging for a return, I took a moment to read the poorly printed instructions. There is more to gripe about than printing: it was clearly written by someone with only a passing glance at English. But I found this:

"1. Connect the drive to computer. Please directly connect it to the USB port of computer. If you connect it to a USB hub or USB extension cord, it maybe cannot run normally and smoothly when using. For desktop, please connect it to the USB port of the motherboard. If you connect it to the frontal USB interface of the motherboard, it maybe cannot run normally on amount of insufficient power supply."

That is not well written English, but it's understandable. I unplugged the USB cord from the front interface of my PC and swapped the plug with another device that was plugged into the rear interface. The result: it worked perfectly (if slowly). So -- no return. At least not today.

Other thoughts: I like the neoprene (or similar material) slipcase. It's a nice touch.

The USB cable supplied with the device was very short, but it was also fitted into the base of the drive so it was neatly out of the way during storage. A cable of -- say -- 3' or 1m would be preferable however.'

In addition to the instructions or "User Manual," they included another sheet of instructions entitled "How To Use It?" These instructions are more basic and refer to installing VLC player software -- which I think is unnecessary. These instructions do not contain the direction to plug the drive into the rear USB plugs.

One last thought: on the back of the instructions, they've helpfully included a list of Frequently Asked Questions. So you know: these are called "FAQs" -- not "FQAs".

Roxy Gmz

June 26, 2025

Funciona

Funciona muy bien ya tengo un mes con el y no me ha fallado

0:18

Disk Still Inside

I don't know how many stars to give. The drive came overnight as stated, and looked new in the box. HOWEVER...when I plugged it in and pressed the eject button...there was a disk already in it. It appears this item was returned with a disk still inside. See pic below.

So far it appears to be working properly.

WELL-DESIGNED

ITEM SPECIFICALLY SELECTED FOR FEATURES & BUNDLED ACCESSORIES.

EASY WINDOWS 11 PLUG & PLAY SETUP -- SUCCESSFUL ON FIRST CONNECT.

INCLUDED CASE & USB-C ADAPTER ARE VERY PRACTICAL ACCESSORIES.

LONGER CONNECTOR CABLE IS MORE USEFUL ACROSS MULTIPLE DEVICES.

CONNECTOR DEPLOYMENT IS EASY -- PRY FROM CABLE END AS SHOWN IN FOTO.

Walter Bode

September 5, 2024

Portable, plug and play, easy to handle

This one I bought for my new Dell Laptop as it doesn't have an optical drive. It is my second one, the first same drive I bought 15 months ago for my Dell PC. The drive is easy to handle, portable, plug and play, no extra software needed and reliable. Beside the regular computer work, I use the drive for listening Music CDs or DVDs and watching Movie DVDs. Since I produce a lot of family professional videos, I use the drive to burn my DVDs, besides using flash drives. Overall, I am very satisfied and recommend this drive to other users.

A replacement unit seems to have helped

I am updating my original review below after having received a replacement drive. This time I was able to burn/verify from the exact same .iso to the exact same media on the exact same computer as earlier. It appears to have worked to completion. This is the bare minimum, in my opinion, for an average grade and that is what I have given now. However, I will say that the quality of the support was quite good in this world where support is usually just a word.

>>> Original Review <<<

This just arrived and my 1st test was to read a previously burned disc. That seemed to work fine.

So I went on to try burning an .iso file to writable media. I tried 3 different times using media from 3 different batches (2, single layer and 1, dual layer) that I have used over the years with other readers that actually worked.

Sadly all 3 attempts to burn using the brand new drive failed. One of the errors said I have inserted the media upside down! I am not an idiot. This thing just had problems right out of the package! I persisted and discovered that in at least one case, the burn completed and the error came from failure to verify the burn. Not sure I trust this thing. But the burned disk did appear to work.

I emailed the seller/maker and got back "the usual suspects": try different media (I already had), try a different USB port (I already had - even a totally different computer), make sure you insert the media correctly (you mean NOT upside down?), etc. None of this was close to helpful.

A Pleasant Drive

This external drive was received on 3/3/24. Upon arrival, I connected it to my Dell laptop and straightway put in a dvd. It played it without any issues whatsoever. I've yet to play music or record using it, but I feel reasonably certain that it will do just fine. It's easy to setup and use, and definitely would recommend it ... especially if you're in the market for an inexpensive dvd player that doubles as a recording device as well since it does have read/write capability. Despite not having tested the other functions it has, I'll still give this 5 stars just for it being well constructed (it's not flimsy), and for its easy setup & dvd playback.

Mini DVD Compatibility

I have old mini DVDs from a Canon camcorder that I want to rip onto my PC, so I saw some reviews for this product that said it was possible so that is what helped me select this product. I have confirmed today that my mini DVDs can be ripped to my PC. Just make sure the mini DVDs have been finalized using your camcorder. I was able to rip using Handbrake software or VLC. Note that there is no need for an indent in the DVD tray for mini DVDs as there was on older CD drives.

Make sure you read the directions to install this device . It’s very necessary!

0:54

Michael

September 8, 2022

Easy to Use and the Right Price, too!

I needed a versatile DVD drive because my laptop did not come with one. This fits the bill nicely. Thank you!

0:08

Wakanda warrior

June 28, 2021

Functional CD/DVD player for the price

I was excited when I purchased my beelink computer, it's so small but powerful. But it didn't have a cd/DVD player which I THOUGHT I WOULDNT NEED,but they do come in handy. When I first saw this player, I read all the reviews before getting it.

PROS: it is totally PLUG N PLAY. No issues there. I don't know about specs etc.., all I want to know, will it work and it does. I'm glad in the comments, the tech support told you what players to download to help it play the movies because I don't have that on my computer.

CONS: I understand the complaints of the cord that plugs into the computer being too short. Would be nice if it was longer or you could get an extension to plug into it to make it long.

BY ALL MEANS DO NOT PLUG INTO USB BOARD. It does not play well with that. I has to be in the computer to work streamlessly.

0:50

SONIXwellness

May 19, 2021

Convenience & Value Packaged Nicely!

My current laptop did not come with a CD/DVD option, so purchasing this device made perfect sense. My desire to burn many of my CD's from way back & upload to iTunes was easier than I remembered.

If there was any improvement I would like to see, is that this device was able to "read" the Album (CD) Cover and associate it with each CD Song that was burned. My old PC did this automatically when I burned music, previously. As an extra step, I had to use Google Images and download the appropriate artwork and then add it to iTunes. Maybe there is a way to do this with this unit and I have not figured out, how?

This device also comes with a stylish padded carrying case to store it, when not in use.

Exceeded my expectations for the price! Great Value!

Eddie Bryan

April 5, 2021

Works

Well, in my case I needed to download some DVD driver software. It cost $15. The drive itself was not so expensive. I had had a bad experience buying a DVD burner. I thought that such a peripheral would PLAY DVDs, but it did not. It just burned them. I had also had a bad experience with a DVD player for my TV. It would not allow adjustments for sound. I think a wire was missing, a cable connection. So, I was happy when I found that all I needed was some 15 dollar software to make this DVD player play. It could use a longer USB but I have already ordered a 6 ft. USB extension.

Quick and Easy to Use

I was looking for an easy to use, compact device to burn my CD collection into my laptop music library. The Roofull was a new brand to me, but its features and other pleased customers' reviews sold me. When it arrived, I was really impressed with the protective case because that is all the Roofull came in, loosely packed inside a large box underneath an 8 lb. box of suet nuggets. It did not have any damage. The Roofull's USB cord was stored so nicely tucked underneath that I did not find it immediately. It burns the CDs very quickly and does not make hardly any noise while running. I also like the added feature that auto-corrected any digital track recording problems. The music sound quality was was the same as the original. I am very happy with my purchase.

The price

The only thing I didn't like is the cable , the way it was stored.

0:24

No regrets

So far I haven't had any issues with this one, it works well with my Lenovo Legion 5 AMD and Windows Pro 64 OS. It has a very fancy case which I really like, quality is also premium imho!

0:42

Handles Audio CDs Poorly

NEW REVIEW: After some back and forth with the Roofull folks, I can change this rating.

On the whole, the customer support from Roofull is pretty good. There is sometimes some lag period, because they seem to be based in China, which means, on average, a good 12 hour time difference between when you write to them and they’re able to respond. Not a big deal, but it can stretch things out a bit as you’re getting your issues addressed.

Given the nature of the problem I had with my device, I thought it was pretty obvious from drop that it was a physical issue, likely with the laser. I had, after all, already experimented with different types of software and disks to eliminate alternate explanations for the background sounds in the audio files I was ripping from CD. Still, they asked me try several more apps, and even on a different laptop, before attempting a return. I suppose I don’t blame them; that’s due diligence. But again, the problem was never that my laptop couldn’t recognize the drive, or that the apps had any trouble recognizing it or the CDs. I could play CDs and rip audio; it’s just that it consistently came with a sound that resembled someone flicking a thick wad of paper in regular intervals of less than a second. So, an obvious problem, but charitably, we could say that they’re just trying to make sure their bases are covered.

They seemed truly worried that I had left a bad review, and wanted the opportunity to make it right with a replacement that worked as advertised. Having no reason to object, I agreed, and within a week or two, the replacement arrived at my doorstep.

Hard to complain though, gift horses being what they are. I didn’t notice this similarity until I had to work with the device without that wallet. I suspect there’s a single manufacturer of these devices, and that these companies merely subcontract their own “official” devices, despite having identical designs.)

But the second thing, and the one most relevant to this review, is the question of whether this replacement device fared any better than the first. And the answer is, yes, absolutely. This time, audio CDs played normally, and CD ripping. After being put through its paces even with unusual CDs (like the X-Files TV soundtrack, and its notoriously difficult-to-access hidden tracks) this drive could handle it.

So I can’t really say how representative the first drive I received was. It may have been a one-in-a-million goof, or it could how one of every three turned out. I can say this much for Roofull: they went out of their way to make sure I was a satisfied customer, and seemed pretty confident that this replacement drive wouldn’t have the same issues as its predecessor. Whatever else is true, they stand by their product, and what more can you hope for in a vendor?

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I should preface this review by stating that I just received this today, so it's barely out of the box. I've also contacted Roofull's tech support, so with any luck, they will be able to make this right shortly, and this review will be moot. But here's what I experienced out of the box. The packaging is nice enough, and the foam wallet it comes with isn't especially sturdy, but it's still a nice touch, something other external CD/DVD Roms lack. Though I can't help but wonder if the reason they provide it is that the drive picks up fingerprints so easily. Minor issue, but worth mentioning.

The primary issue I encountered has to do with what, for me, will be this drive's primary purpose. When my old laptop gave up the ghost, I had to purchase a new laptop which lacked its own internal optical drive. The repair guy who sold me the laptop assured me I had nothing to worry about; he pointed out that we rarely need optical drives anymore anyway, but if for some reason I did, I could easily get an external one; they are cheap and easily had these days. But this was no small matter for me, in that my obsessions with music often lead me to obscure albums that can only be had on vinyl or CD. The latter requires a good optical drive for ripping. My previous laptop's internal drive reliably carried out this task with ease. This one... well, so far, it's a bust.

I should say, I had no trouble getting it set up. Windows 10 immediately recognized it as a CD drive, as did my media software. So, with an obscure CD from the halcyon days of 1998 in hand, I fired it up. The media recognized the CD just fine. The problem came when I tried to play it. The sound was there, but the player adds this tapping noise to the background. I tried ripping the CD, and the sound was there in the mp3; indeed, the error correction in my software wouldn't even let me complete the process. I experimented with different CDs, and different media software. In every case, that weird sound was there.

I haven't experimented with CD-ROM software or DVD playing, much less CD/DVD burning. My primary purpose was the ripping of audio CDs, and if it can't handle that function, then it's defective. Again, take this all with a grain of salt; I'm hopeful Roofull can either replace it or, if there is some (unlikely) software tweak they can recommend, we can implement that. But thus far, I cannot recommend this product.

Terrible sound

This is so funny

Terrible product !!!

Sounds like it’s going to explode

0:40

Beutiful portable Multi format drive with included case!

First off I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a portable unit, but this one has everything including a case. I have a lot of systems but currently you may not want to install a captive multiformat optical drive. For $30.00 including a case this can't be beat. So far I've ripped digital copy movies I own to my NAS and it performed flawlessly. I did two dvd-r test burns and they worked perfect. The only thing I can't speak for is how many hours of use you can expect but I see nothing subpar as far as the unit/transport. I really love this little drive and it will come in handy during field work as well. I didn't comment for Tech. support as I didn't need any as the unit has been flawless. Thank you ROOFULL for offering such a well built unit at a great price. God bless!

Made in China I assume..

The Roofull external harddrive did not work at all for me. Extremely disappointed, all it recognizes are audio files & video_ts cannot watch films. Stay away.

0:16

Worked fine for about 10 minutes.

After about 10 minutes of watching a movie it started making a loud clicking sound and the movie wouldn't play anymore. I tried 5 or 6 other movies and they all did the same thing.

0:16